This Feels Like Flying a Kite

"Someone's coming in!" The police officer pointed at the monitor.

In the surveillance footage, a man walked into the morgue and headed straight for the bed where the previously 'reanimated' corpse was placed.

This person must be suspicious - at least that's what all the officers thought.

In the subsequent footage, the man approached the bed with the corpse, turned his back to the camera, lifted the white sheet covering the body, and began fiddling with it.

"What's he doing?" one officer asked.

Since the man had his back to the camera the entire time, the officers couldn't make out exactly what he was doing.

"Who knows, but he's definitely up to no good."

Just as these words were spoken, the surveillance footage suddenly turned horrifying.

After the man finished whatever he was doing with the corpse and turned to leave, something shocking happened. The moment he turned away, the corpse that had been lying quietly on the bed suddenly sat up!

When the man who had entered the morgue realized the corpse behind him had 'reanimated,' he took off running, with the corpse chasing after him.

"Holy crap... what the hell is this? Is this really a reanimated corpse??"

"I'm starting to think this guy might be innocent now. Look at his reaction when he realizes the corpse is 'alive' - he's clearly terrified. This suggests he didn't know the corpse would 'reanimate' or that he hadn't tampered with it."

"Hmm... now that you mention it, I'm getting that feeling too. You don't think this could actually be a real reanimation, do you? His reaction seems pretty genuine."

"..."

The officers' perspectives were gradually shifting, and they were even beginning to wonder if this might be a genuine case of reanimation.

Chen Ke turned to Xu Mo with furrowed brows: "Have you noticed anything?"

"No," Xu Mo shook his head.

He still didn't believe in reanimated corpses.

But so far, Xu Mo hadn't found any leads or discoveries; he couldn't explain what he was seeing in the surveillance footage.

"Let's play it again, maybe we'll notice something we missed," Xu Mo requested another viewing.

After watching it again, Xu Mo still couldn't spot anything unusual.

Chen Ke and the other officers were in the same boat - they couldn't identify what was wrong.

With no other choice, they watched the footage yet again.

They also pulled up the surveillance footage from the morgue corridor and the first-floor hallway, reviewing each one.

This time, Xu Mo spotted something.

"There's something off here. The corpse only ever chases this one man, never changing targets, and have you noticed that the distance between the corpse and the man is always exactly about one meter - never more, never less? This remains constant from the morgue to the corridor outside, to the stairwell... even in the first-floor hallway. Their distance never varies. They don't look like pursuer and pursued - they're more like... a kite and its flyer."

As soon as Xu Mo pointed this out, everyone realized he was right.

"Yes, they maintain that one-meter distance throughout... Play the morgue footage again!"

An officer pointed at the surveillance footage on the screen: "Look, the man turns to leave at 11:26. When he first turns, the corpse hasn't moved yet. The corpse only 'reanimates' exactly when he's one meter away. He must be involved!"

"Flying a kite... I've got it! What if he tied ropes to both himself and the corpse, so when he got up, the corpse would follow him!" Chen Ke suddenly exclaimed.

His theory was supported by another officer.

"Yes, yes! That's why he was fiddling around in the morgue for so long - he must have been tying ropes to the corpse's limbs. The rope must be about a meter long, which explains why they maintain that constant distance. And that's why the 'reanimated' corpse only chases him and no one else - it's all because of the rope!"

Xu Mo added another observation.

"It can't just be ropes though. If the limbs were only tied with ropes, the corpse would have collapsed rather than running as we see in the video. This man must have done something else too, though we don't know exactly what."

Although they weren't sure exactly how the man had managed to make a corpse run after him, the officers were now certain that he was suspicious.

He hadn't come to the morgue to view a body - he'd come to steal one!

The chase by the 'reanimated' corpse was just an illusion he had created to make people think he wasn't stealing the body, but rather that the corpse had accidentally 'reanimated' and chased him out of the hospital.

"Who cares how he did it? We know he's behind this - let's arrest him. Once we interrogate him, we'll get all the answers!" one officer said.

Having realized the man was definitely involved, the officers didn't waste any time. They worked through the night, identifying the man's face from the surveillance footage to get his identity information, then used the skynet surveillance system to track his whereabouts.

It was now 1 AM, only an hour and a half since the incident.

The skynet system showed that the man was still at his home.

Without hesitation, the officers set out to arrest him.

Shadow Tower Apartments.

Building 3, Unit 604.

"Knock knock knock."

"Who is it?"

"Your food delivery is here."

"I didn't order any food. You've got the wrong address."

They had tried to trick him into opening the door, but when that didn't work, Xu Mo had to use his lock-picking skills. He pulled out a wire, inserted it into the keyhole, jiggled it around a bit, and had the door open in seconds.

Once the door was open, the officers rushed into the apartment and tackled the man inside.

Notably, there was also a corpse in the room - the same one that had 'reanimated' in the hospital.

Their suspicions had been correct; the man had stolen the corpse.

"Caught red-handed - the body's right here in his apartment. We definitely came to the right place," one officer said with a smile, pulling out his shiny handcuffs and placing them on the suspect.